Health Proofing Your Vacation

Whether you're traveling by car, cruise ship, train or airplane, this is the time of year when many people decide to take a vacation.

Amy Schweinle is an experienced flyer. She's originally from Texas, and travels home a couple of times a year to visit family.

"If I'm going to be traveling anyway, I try not to think too much about getting sick. I try to wash my hands frequently and if I do get sick knowing that I am going somewhere, where I can probably pick up some medicine," Amy Schweinle said.

Schweinle admits there are times when she would like her fellow passengers to take a few more steps to health proof their vacation, too.

"I think it only comes to mind if they are obviously sick, coughing, blowing their nose. It's worrisome but there's not a whole lot you can do about it," Schweinle said.

Doctors say there *are things you can do to make sure your vacation time doesn't turn into sick time.

“I think the best practice is hand hygiene really that cuts down on the risk of so many infections,” Hsu said.

Dr. Jennifer Hsu says it's also important to get an adequate amount of rest and to eat healthy. This will help boost your immune response to help fight off an infection while traveling. That's important because close quarters can be a drawback when you travel.

Certainly easier to catch infections and when you are on the airplane in close proximity probably some of the biggest risks are respiratory infection," Hsu said.

There are lots of ways to be prepared while traveling. And to make sure your trip is a good one you can even stock up on medication here in the airport gift shop.

"I do have Tylenol," Schweinle said.

Make sure that you have all your medicine with you. And if you do get it have a little preventative medicine to go along with it," Mcmanus said.

Simple solutions to make your summertime vacation an enjoyable one.

Dr. Hsu adds while some may opt to take high doses of vitamins, there isn't anything in particular that has been shown to consistently decrease your risk of infection.